Subject:
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Re: New Product and Promotional Timing
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.market.theory
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Date:
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Fri, 14 May 1999 03:15:39 GMT
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Viewed:
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691 times
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Steve Bliss wrote in message <373ae1f8.7135823@lugnet.com>...
:On Thu, 13 May 1999 04:00:20 GMT, "Janet Zorn"
<lighthouse@bonzai.net>
:wrote:
:
:>Whereas, since the EP1 sets came out the S@H specials have been, uh,
:>less than special.
:
:I think that is coincidental, not related.
I HATE paying retail so I hope S@H improves. Wonder if Sw will push
the other '99 sets to specials sooner. I suspect so.
:
:>Whereas, TLG has seemingly abandoned Trains so thoroughly.
:
:Look at European Trains for 1999.
HOW hard is it to get sets not in the US catalog. I only looked once
long ago and the intricacies of international dealings to get the sets
just seemed too much. Though now I'm getting more and more hooked.
(Digression: It was a torture not to bid on the Spectral Starguider on
Ebay today. But I had to save for the SW sets that I want.)
AND why, o why, do they have sets that they won't sell across the
ocean?!?!?!?! What kind of marketing scheme is that - or is it only a
logistical issue?
:
:>Whereas, with so many pricey SW sets out all at once that are very
:>hard not to blow your whole Lego budget on.
:
:The SW sets are not cheap, but they aren't as outrageous as they
might
:be...
AGREED. The larger sets surprise me at how reasonably priced they are.
I think that I would have advised TLG to raise the prices on the large
sets. Am I wrong in thinking that the classic sets have lower cents
per piece than the EP1 set?
:
:>Whereas, a new theme, Rock Raiders are hitting the shelves right
after
:>the EP1 sets.
:
:That one is bizarre. Especially since they weren't due for three
more
:months.
SINCE I just read how juniorized these are but given that they have
similar colors and some similar type pieces (canopies), I'm thinking
that Rock Raiders is a appeasement of those w/in TLG who think that
children prefer the snap on the wheels and you're done approach who
lost out in the battle for the SW sets.
:
:>Whereas, ebay prices of non-SW sets are only slightly less
outrageous
:>than the prices of SW sets.
:
:That data-point is very interesting. I think there is still a very
high
:level of un-met demand for online auctioning.
MAYBE I'm just a weenie, but the auction atmosphere is still
intimidating to me. I am pretty sure I'd prefer to pay a premium for a
fixed price sale than battle through an auction. Guess I'm just too
risk averse (translate weenie). After all what is keeping all of us
from grabbing a shopping cart full of Landspeeders and slowly dumping
them on ebay for a 100% premium?
:
:>S@H may be restricted by contract with Lucas from offering much if
any
:>discount on any thing anyone would want so as not to canibalize the
:>brand.
:
:Seems like that would only apply to SW sets.
MAYBE, but if you thought that non-SW lego was a substitute to some
degree for SW lego then you'd want to try to keep the price of the
non-SW stuff from eating in to your SW revenues. It is the brand that
canibalizes itself, not the separate product lines.
:
:>Should we expect selective discounts this year? E.G., 20% off Space
:>Command and Adventurers only.
:
:I doubt that we'll see more of this than in previous years. LEGO
already
:has a very generous return policy for retailers. And other SW toys
go on
:clearance, once the collectors clear out the 5% of the sets worth
:collecting.
GOOD info, thanks.
:
:>Why were the Classic SW sets not released en masse earlier or later
so
:>as not to crowd out the $ for EP1?
:
:The Classic SW sets were released earlier -- by about 3 months. I
figure
:the release of the classic sets were timed to take advantage of
pre-EP1
:fever. Maybe Lucas wanted them out, to raise the awareness of SW,
without
:revealing anything about EP1.
MAYBE it is just my market. Here in Northern VA there were only a few
classic SW sets released early this year. The few went on the shelves
and right off in hours and were not replaced at all. I can see what
you're saying though. Build the expectation. I think that the classic
sets are so much better than the EP1 sets. Though the EP1 sets seem to
have more neat new pieces. (I'm not, as some are, one to lament the
addition of new shapes and sizes.)
:
:>The only economic rationale I can
:>think of is that they are counting on all the SW sets being
:>complements and not substitutes. In other words the
:>collector/completist motive has to be pretty strong for these sets.
:
:Right. I agree that this is the rationale, and I think it is a
correct
:interpretation of how many people will behave.
INTERESTING. I'm not a completist type on much of anything. Maybe most
SW fans are. I do have to say that as a whole there are not many of
the SW sets I want to pass on. I think they look great and offer lots
of new possibilities with the new pieces.
:
:>This could be true, but there are so many great sets this year
:>compared to the last few years, and these sets are a couple of cents
:>per piece higher in general than usual.
:
:Really? I disagree there. All the theme sets have been juniorized,
to a
:greater or lesser extent. Ninjas lesser, Adventurers a bit more,
sounds
:like Rock Raiders is more, and Space Port is definitely greater.
:
:Also, the Ninja sets are just a bit silly. Flying ninjas? Dragon
wagons?
:
AGREED. I was mainly talking about the volume of different SW sets.
Has there ever been a theme with so many sets added in a single year?
I do admit to liking some of the juniorized sets for some of the parts
they offer and though I think Ninja is very silly I almost bought
Blaze Attack and I would love to pick up the Adventurer boat set at a
discount because I like the boat.
:
:>What will they do next year?
:
:Release more SW sets, probably Classic Star Wars. There are many
more SW
:sets that TLG could produce, just to cover the basics. I hope TLG
never
:produces the level of trivial and duplicated sets that other
toymakers have
:done. And I think there is little chance of that.
I DO hope that they continue with the SW theme for a few years. I'm no
SW fan at all, but there are now some really great space sets, the
first since I've come out of the dark ages.
I am amazed that TLG doesn't milk themes more. I look at people's web
pages and see the great stuff they do, and wonder why TLG doesn't do
something similar. Lots of sets to go with a theme. They left so much
undone with Castle. Rather than doing witches and ghosts they could
have built more serious medieval stuff. I just don't understand why
they leave product line concepts so under-developed.
DJZ
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: New Product and Promotional Timing
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| (...) Could be. (...) The general answer is: work out a deal with someone in a country where Larry P. can be your factor. The specific answer is: most (all?) of the 1999 Euro train sets will be available from S@H. (...) I can understand that. (...) (...) (25 years ago, 14-May-99, to lugnet.market.theory)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: New Product and Promotional Timing
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| (...) I think that is coincidental, not related. (...) Look at European Trains for 1999. (...) The SW sets are not cheap, but they aren't as outrageous as they might be... (...) That one is bizarre. Especially since they weren't due for three more (...) (25 years ago, 13-May-99, to lugnet.market.theory)
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